Weneedtoknowifsums ofindependenceaddup

We have all become accustomed to news of ever more freebies that flow freely from Nicola Sturgeon and her SNP government; paid for by your taxes.

We’ve had ‘free’ bus travel for pensioners, free prescriptions at a reported cost of upwards of £1.3 billion in 2018, baby boxes at a cost of £8.8 million per year, the £600 Pregnancy and Baby Payment, £500 payments for some front line workers in the fight against COVID-19, the forthcoming £10 extra per week for every child under six, free school breakfasts and dinners for all children under six, including during school holidays, and free tampons to combat period poverty.

Free bus travel for under 19s was meant to be introduced in January but has been put on hold due to the virus.

Charities are lobbying for the £10 extra per week for every child under six to be increased to £20 per week and the age limit extended to under 16s, plus the £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit to be retained permanently.

If the people of Scotland do vote for independence, I hope they will first think on how it will affect them financially. Will all those sweeteners still be there post independence?

What currency will we use? How will the new currency be viewed on the international money markets? Will my pension be affected?

Kate Forbes keeps telling us that once we are independent and have control of all the levers of finance we will have the power to make different choices with different economic budgetary results.

Well the SNP has been in power since 2007, first as a minority government, then in 2011 as a majority government and then again in 2016 as a minority government.

The latest GERS (Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland) figures to April 5, 2020, show the Scottish Government spent £15.1bn more on public services than it raised in taxes.

That made the deficit £2bn higher than the previous year and equaling 8.6 per cent of GDP.

One of the criteria which EU countries must meet is to demonstrate sound public finances and a budget deficit that does not exceed three per cent of GDP.

Due to the Barnett Formula, Scotland’s public spending advantage over England has grown to a record level.

When the Scottish Parliament opened in 1999 the spending gap was roughly £1000 but now official statistics show almost £2000 more is now spent per head on public services in Scotland compared with England.

In 2019 - 2020 England faced the lowest level of spending per head at £9604 while Scotland received £11,566. This is because the UK Treasury recognises the higher costs of delivering services to a more rural population.

As an independent nation and in order to raise more finance, the Scottish Government may need to raise taxation. It is all right to say tax the rich but in Scotland only 0.3 per cent of the population pay the highest 46p rate,

7.7 per cent pay the 41p rate and 19 per cent of people pay the intermediate rate of 21p.

So where would the burden fall ?

Are you going to vote to make yourself poorer ?

Make no mistake about it, independence will not be painless.

It’s going to be either raise taxes or austerity and cuts to public services.

I fail to understand the SNP obsession with wanting independence from the rest of the UK and applying to rejoin the EU. At present Scotland is represented at Westminster by 59 out of 650 Members of Parliament. The EU Parliament has 27 states represented by 705 Members of the European Parliament.

Scotland has a population roughly similar to that of Slovakia (5.45 million), Finland (5.5 million) and Denmark (5.8 million).

They all have 14 elected members to the European Parliament; approximately two per cent of the total.

The Scottish Government’s own annual export statistics show that over 60 per cent of exports are to the rest of the UK.

The rest is roughly 21 per cent to the rest of the world and 19 per cent to the European Union.

How much of that 19 per cent travels by road through our neighbours to the south and what would be the effect of border checks, tariffs and regulations on trade were we to be invited to rejoin the European Union?

People should remember that prior to 2007 this country was a Labour fiefdom and that no party stays in government for ever.

In years to come who knows, an independent Scotland might be led by a government of a persuasion other than socialist - then what?

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